Riots UK 2011 Sentences Harsh Courts Debate Deterrent Incitement Facebook (18Aug11)

UK Riots August 2011: Are the sentences being handed out to rioters in the recent UK riots too harsh, or do they serve as a deterrent to others who might be so inclined in the future? A conservative and a liberal debate it on Sky News.
Shaun Bailey and Afua Hirsch.

Link to related "Guardian" article:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/aug/18/full-picture-of-riot-sentences


Summary of the debate:

= The truth about UK Riots Court sentences - more severe than normal - more punitive general trend of punishment for criminal and anti-social behaviour. Four year sentence for inciting disorder on Facebook.

= Political interference in the justice system very dangerous - the courts must be independent of government - appeal courts will be clogged up - damages long term confidence in legal system.

= People have no respect or trust for the criminal justice system any more - they think it is broken - politicians may not have openly encouraged harsher sentences, but the Public certainly have. The Public felt in danger, under attack. Young people told if you live on benefits and the taxpayer pays all your bills, what have you got to lose by rioting? Some young people surprisingly support the strong Court judgements. It's not about politics - it's about Public anger.

= A lot of these people are young and first time offenders. The UK does not have a good record of people sentenced to jail coming out in a better state then when they were first locked up. re-offending rates are very high. Not convinced that sending them to jail is the answer.

= Agree we have a large teenage prison population, but this still does not answer the question that the Public wants answered. Professionals do not regard the judiciary as a mechanism for punishment - but the Public do.

= After the hard Facebook punishments, people will know that if there are disturbances in future, not to incite riots via Facebook.

= Questionable whether these harsh sentences will be a deterrent. The concept of deterrent is very complicated. And it is simply not the case that when people commit offences they are necessarily affected by previous sentences that have been imposed. If you use one person to set an example for somebody else, you are not treating him as an individual with his own rights, you are just using him as an object to send a message to others. That's really problematic. And the deterrent issue is not one that has been resolved.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• yt:crop=16:9
• UK
• riots
• punishments
• law
• courts
• youth
• order
• crime
• police
• Tottenham
• arson
• theft
• family
• gangs
• punitive
• criminal
• justice
• legal
• attack
• assault
• benefits
• taxpayers
• rioting
• anger
• offender
• jail
• prison
• judiciary
• incitement
• judge
• magistrate
• Facebook
• sedition
• treason
• deterrent
• example
• offences
• message
• security

[SoldierOfChrist110]

@rareisalive Ah, but look at the evil the governments are doing, making the rich richer and the poor poorer.

[rareisalive]

Each rioter deserves death, each one of them can;t be doing anything good with their life if they're heart can change just because there's a riot.

[Euclides287]

Watch the truth behind the uk riots /watch?v=5TnL6-9OQG4